Maxine Hong Kingston

Bay Area Book Festival: Maxine Hong Kingston, James Cagney, Cintia Santana, more

1 JUNE 2025 — sunday

The 11th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, under new direction and with a new theme, "Changing the Narrative," presents 275 speakers, 85 panels, youth programs, exhibitors, and a Poetry Stage in downtown Berkeley: 11:30-11:45 am: "Incantation to Open Portals," with Aya De Leon Aya de León and MK Chavez; 11:45 am-1:25 pm: "Garden of Possibilities, A Reading," with Audrey T. Williams, Gabriel Cortez, Cintia Santana, Kinsala Drake, Maw Shein Win, and Bryan Byrdlong; 1:30 pm-2:35 pm: "Women, Cyborgs, Revolutionary Petunias, and Other Creatures," with Rachel Richardson, Georgina Marie Guardado, Yaffa AS, Lynne Thompson, and Shabnam Piryaei; 2:45 pm-4:00 pm: "Chimera Space: Monstrous, Lovely, and Liminal," with Amanda Hawkins, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Adela Najarro, and Grayson Thompson; 4:00 pm-4:40 pm: "Wound is the Portal: Healing into the Future," James Cagney, Mimi Tempestt, and Marian Urquilla; 4:40 pm-4:55 pm: "Incantation for Future: Closing Headliner and Portal Closing," Maxine Hong Kingston; Poetry Stage events are curated by the Berkeley Poetry Festival, The Festival is held at twenty various locations across downtown Berkeley, the Poetry Stage is at Kittredge and Harold Way between Shattuck Avenue and Milvia Street, downtown Berkeley (For more information, visit: (www.baybookfest.org)